On-going research and biography for Josef and Florian Josephu (brothers); Josef Josephu, a sculptor born in Vienna, January 12, 1899, emigrated to New York 1939, and died in New York 1970....and his brother, Florian Josephu-Drouot

Pages

The Brothers Josephu

Thursday, November 19, 2015

I'm very pleased that Anne Marie O'Connor has agreed to write the forward for Brothers in Stone.

Anne-Marie is a veteran foreign correspondent and culture writer who has covered everything from post-Soviet Cuba to American artists and intellectuals. O’Connor attended Vassar and the San Francisco Art Institute and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, where she and fellow students co-created an award-winning documentary on the repression of mural artists after the 1973 military coup in Chile. She covered the wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala as a Reuters bureau chief in Central America; the Shining Path guerrillas in Peru, coups in Haiti and U.S. interventions in Haiti and Panama; and covered Cuba and Haiti for a newspaper chain. At the Los Angeles Times she chronicled the violence of Mexico’s Arellano-Felix drug cartel, U.S. political convention; and profiled such figures as Nelson Mandela, George Soros, Joan Didion, John McCain, and Maya Lin.

Her story on Maria Altmann’s effort to recover the family Klimt collection appeared in the Los Angeles Times Magazine in 2001. She has written for Esquire, The Nation, and The Christian Science Monitor. She currently contributes to The Washington Post from Jerusalem.​

Most recently Ms. O'Connor has written the definitive book on Gustav Klimt's masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, otherwise known as "Woman in Gold." Her book Lady in Gold is superb and highly recommended. Ms. O'Connor is a leading expert on Gustav Klimt, and had introduced me to his grandson, Gustav Zimmerman, on my last trip to Vienna.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

The research on Josephu is an ongoing process, sometimes very slow and sometimes surprisingly fast. Sunday night I sent an email to three facilities in Vienna seeking a photo of one of Josef's teachers, Josef Muellner. The next morning I had three replies and the photo, which they have given me permission to use in the book credited as courtesy of them.

Then, in a quick search today, I found another statue I did now know about, titled "Salome" (1920) probably cast by Argentor, the company that reproduced many of Josef's work.

Then another piece of interesting data showed up. We know my mother went to school with Hedy Lamarr in Vienna (before she was Hedy Lamarr). A wooden statue by Josef (St. Anthony) stands in the beautiful Karlskirche (St. Charles' Church) located in Karlsplatz just off the Ringstrasse. Hedy married Friedrich Mandl August 10, 1933, in Karlskirche. My great-grandfather, Wenzel Josephu, was born on August 10th....and so was I. Fun stuff.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to seeing some documents from the archives of the Fire Brigade Museum of Am Hof, Vienna. They reached out to me that they have several documents about my grandfather. He sculpted a large bronze (St. Florian, patron saint of firemen) and has 8 pieces in their museum.﻿

Links:

About this project:

I am the grandson and biographer of the artist, Josephu. I have been researching for over 15 years to create a biography of Josef and his brother Florian, to include journal of their works rich with photos. Special thanks to George Klein for his assistance, generosity and friendship, and to Herbert Fischer for his excellent research abilities and contributions.

If you own a Josephu piece, or know of one in a public venue, please contact me. Third party contributions will be most helpful and welcome, and will enable us to extend the base of works by Josephu. Email, please!!

I visited Vienna in 2011 in an effort to further my research, then - essentially - the biography will be complete. However, I view the work as an ongoing project and will ammend it as new information is uncovered. The printed biography will be tied into this blog, and possibly a video documentary.